


No Closet Big Enough

by VermeilH20



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-08-09 03:55:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7785805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VermeilH20/pseuds/VermeilH20
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chloe grapples with her feelings for Ladybug and her father's expectations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Use and Reuse

"Adrikins!" Chloe made sure the entire class could see her as she draped her body on his, arms around his neck. The discomfort on his face annoyed her. It was not as if she felt any better about it.

Then again, he didn't know that. None of them knew that. Letting him push her off, she spotted Juleka and Rose watching. The sight of the two of them, holding hands, made her feel something she should not. Red-faced, she snapped at them "What are you looking at?" They turned away hurriedly, and Chloe felt something shrivel inside her.

"Chloe..." Adrien began.

"I am having so much trouble with physics." Lie. "Could you please come over and help me? I promise to be nice." Lie. "Sabrina is too busy today afternoon and I am so lost." Lie and lie. Gesturing at Sabrina to remain quiet, she topped off the performance with an exaggerated moan, falling into Adrien. Who promptly righted her again. "Please, please, PLEASE?" She plastered a huge smile on her face.

"Okay." Poor boy would do anything for his friends. She almost felt guilty using him like this.

Ignoring the feeling, as she did with most, she grabbed Sabrina and marched into class.


	2. Faux Streak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> \-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
> While i am trying to make Chloe more sympathetic, I am not going to forget that playing an entitled brat comes a bit too easily for it all to be an act. Leave it to her to construe Adrien's musings about being Chat as a veiled commentary on her own secrets!
> 
> Just to make it clear, she does not know either of the heroes' identities.

Chloe dropped her bag on the floor and collapsed onto her bed. School always took a lot out of her.

"Mr. Agreste is here to see you, Miss."

Groaning, she got up and went to the door.

"Hey." Adrien smiled at her, the same smile that made half the girls in Paris go weak in the knees.

The same smile that had never made her feel anything. Other than relief that someone knew the truth. She grinned back.

"Come on! I have all the footage from the recent interview." Grabbing his hand, she dragged him over to the huge wall screen.

***  
"Chat is pretty awesome, isn't he?" Adrien asked as the camera zoomed in on his face. Chloe had never really understood his fascination with Chat. She shrugged noncommittally.  
He smirked, switching focus. "Ladybug is just so amazing."

Chloe lit up. "And beautiful."

The two sighed audibly. Looking at each other, they began giggling.

"How long are you going to keep this up?" Adrien asked her as they quieted down.

"Until I am eighteen and can be labelled as another rich girl gone wild." She rolled her eyes. "You know my dad is afraid it will hurt his career."

"But it is hurting you." He looked worried. "You keep being so hurtful to others, too. What you did to Kim..."

"I am sorry for this morning, okay?" She didn't take her eyes from the screen, her flippantly annoyed tone masking the roiling in her stomach. She hated thinking too much about this.

"And there!" Chloe triumphantly paused the video. "This is it!" The frame had captured Ladybug in midsentence, her lips slightly parted, a few stray hairs framing her eyes. Those brilliant blue eyes were sparkling in the studio lights. "Isn't this perfect? I wonder who she is behind the mask?"

He sighed, resigned. Accepting her reluctance, he followed the train of conversation. "It wouldn't really matter. She is just so brave and compassionate. Those are the kinds of qualities you possess in the full." 

"But wouldn't it be great to know everything about her?" Chloe persisted.

He looked surprised. "I guess. But you can't really know everything about anyone, can you?" He looked at her pointedly, then shook his head in frustration. "Sometimes you just need to wait until people are ready to show who they are beneath the mask."

"That was deep." She looked at him in surprise. Something about the way he said it.... Maybe that was some of why she was so attracted to Ladybug, to the girl behind the mask. Masquerade balls were one of her favorite recurring dreams, any way.

 

"Anyway, it makes it easier for you, right?"

She laughed. "I know! Sabrina thinks that this," She pointed to the Ladybug background on the screen, "is all just fangirling. She has no idea why I really leave her with the Chat Noir costume every time."

"Hey, he isn't just leftovers." He sounded a bit insulted.

Honestly, why did he care so much? "Yeah, he is her partner and an integral part of the duo, whatever. Let's finish this video."

As her friend turned back to the screen, she thought about what he had said. About masks. Something about that seemed so emotional. Maybe it was just her, feeling like everything was a veiled comment about it. After all, who was she to talk about unmasking someone when she could not even tell anyone who she really was?

Sometimes it was easier to love someone when you didn't know who they really were.


	3. Chapter 3

"What you did..."

"I am a horrible person! I know that no one likes me! What else do you want me to say?" She flopped down exaggeratedly on the bed with her phone.

Adrien huffed a little. "I just think you could have let him down easier."

"Hah!" Chloe wheeled on him, stabbing her finger through the air like a knife. "Tell me, Mr. Model, how you feel when every single girl on the street stares at you, sends you hundreds of letters begging for affection, and acts as if you are something for the taking!"

"I wouldn't know, since Nathalie reads all my mail first." he muttered as she continued.

"Guys see the way I look, the way I act, and just assume that they can do that. Just ask me out, tell me they feel things for me I will never, ever feel for them." Genuine tears began forming in her eyes and she blinked them away. "You have your dad, your PA and your gorilla to keep you from this stuff. I never had that and I never will. At least not as long as my dad keeps on with his 'career'." She rolled her eyes."I am tired of people assuming."

"You can't blame them, if you keep, you know, ummm..."

"Throwing myself all over you?" She smirked dryly. "Why can't they take that as a hint that I am not interested?"

He did not have answer for that. "It's just, you akumatize a lot of people."

"I got akumatized once myself." She started scrolling through her phone.

"And still got one of the most flattering makeovers."

"Hah. I am that fabulous." She tossed her hair. "Seriously, though, can't they take my attitude as a hint to leave me alone?"

"Maybe because your attitude makes them into objects of ridicule."

I am just afraid of becoming an object of ridicule, she thought. Of course, she would never admit to it. Daddy always said that revealing weakness made it easier for your opponents to undermine you. She was not one to be undermined.

"Whatever. Have you seen the news? There is a new villain on the loose, and this time, its not my fault."

"What!? Got to go, uh, see the news,"

Adrien tore out of the room, and she stared at his back in confusion. "There is a television right here. And WiFi."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Updates will be posted every other Sunday:)

Chloe sat bundled under a blanket on her bed, knees pulled to her chest as she scrolled through her phone. This was the only place where she felt free enough to cry.

And she had a lot to cry about. Tracing the black spots on the red blanket, she thought about her latest conversation with Adrien.

"Don't you ever think of anyone but yourself?" He'd asked her, showing signs of anger for the first time in a long while.

"Of course I do! I think of Daddy and his career every single waking moment of my life!" she'd yelled back.

It was after the last akuma attack, where Marinette's uncle had turned into some kind of food demon, intent on cooking Chloe into soup after she'd sabotaged him. Maybe she had gone a bit overboard, trying to get back at the other girl, but Adrien usually let her off with nothing more than a few admonishments and a disappointed look. She'd been disappointing people for a long time, it hardly had an effect on her. Hardly.

This time, things had heated up.

"You can't just keep using that secret as an excuse for being horrible to people! I know you and Marinette don't get along, but you didn't have to go after her uncle that way!"

"I was angry. She is always so smug about everything, trying to be better than me."

He'd made an exasperated noise. "You are the one who is always going after her. And being angry at the fact that Marinette finally managed to stand up for herself doesn't justify what you did. Besides, don't you think that your father was more embarrassed by the fact that you were exposed as a petty saboteur on live television? How does that help your appearance?"

That was an excellent point, but Chloe was hardly one to concede defeat. "

"Look, Chloe, you are one of my best friends, and I know how hard things are for you." His voice changed. "But you are not the only one with secrets, and you are not the only one struggling with them." Then he'd gone in for the blow. "Haven't you stopped to think how much Chat Noir and Ladybug must struggle with their identities? How difficult it must be for them to keep their friends and family unaware while they try to save the city? Yet they still manage to be kind and considerate and compassionate to everyone," he sighed, "almost everyone, even on days when they had a horrible argument with their friends, or they got in trouble at school or their whole world could be falling apart. I am pretty sure the Ladybug you idolize has problems other than saving the citizens of Paris, yet she manages to put others before herself."

It had stung, what he had said. Adrien was right, of course. It did not make the awareness any easier to stomach, though. Ladybug obviously had a life beyond being one of the most amazing superheroes ever, but Chloe didn't want to acknowledge that her hero could have any failings. She did not want to acknowledge her own failings, either. And Adrien's outburst had driven home everything she did not want to think about.

It was the longest lecture he'd ever given her. She had been surprised. On second thought, Adrien had been getting more expressive lately. Not so restricted with his feelings anymore. She wondered why.


End file.
